Bangladesh will put former Pakistani officer on Trial!

After 46 years, now Bangladesh will put on trial a Bengali army officer, who sided with the Pakistani forces during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and he will become the first Pakistani army officer to face the charges.

A special investigation cell’s coordinator on war crimes Mohammad Abdul Hannan on Tuesday said that the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) finalised its investigation report on accused 75-year-old former Pakistani army Captain Mohammad Shahidullah.

“We found his involvement in crimes like murder, confinement, torture and looting,” Hannan told reporters. The ICT, during its investigation that continued from 11 October 2015 to 20 March 2017, could primarily prove three counts of charges against Shahidullah who has been in jail since his arrest on August 2, 2016.

Hannan said that “He was posted in West Pakistan and on leave at his home… He reported to duty at Dhaka cantonment as the war broke out and (subsequently) committed monstrous crimes in Comilla district as he was transferred there.”

Shahidullah is the first Bengali former army officer to be put on trial for crimes against humanity but investigations were underway against several other Bengali army officers who took part in atrocities as members of Pakistan army in 1971.

Bangladesh started the belated proccess of trying 1971 war criminals in 2010 while all those who were tried until now are civilians and mostly belonged to fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, which was opposed to the Independence.